Tuesday Tantrum

I feel like rambling today for a brief moment, so feel free to read along...

Forums - I'm definitely depressing myself with the amount of time I'm spending in the forums and not getting those elusive sales that are out there (SOMEWHERE). They say promote, promote, promote. There are days I actually feel like I'm pimping my store!! I absolutely LOVE the views & hearts, features in blogs and treasuries...but is it wrong of me to still want to see my 2nd sale at some point in time???

Legal??? - That brings me to my next topic. Even though this is my own blog, I won't call anyone out by name. I've noticed there are several other stores out there selling cross stitch patterns. Some of these stores average one sale per day. Congrats to them. My beef is this; if you look at their stores they have many patterns that I know have to be copyright infringements...national products, dead celebrities that you know have everything with their name licensed, etc. Are they doing this legally? Do they even care if they are? It bothers me that I'm trying to create original patterns that people might enjoy and these other sellers APPEAR (I could be wrong) to be ripping off any digital image they can, dropping it into a cross stitch program and then selling a pdf copy of it. If I use someone else's artwork it is either royalty-free or I pay licensing fees to use it AND I give proper source credit on all my printed patterns - no stealing here!

Guesswork or the real thing? - This is sort of a continuation of above. If you are a cross stitcher, would you rather buy a pattern that is a pdf copy (that you have to print yourself) from a digital photo without knowing exactly what the finished product will look like, or would you like to have a pattern that is already printed (sometimes in a larger size to make reading the symbols easier) that has a photo of what the finished piece will look like? There is definitely a difference between what a digital photo and the finished piece will look like. My sunflowers is a perfect example. I think my rose also is. The sunflowers I didn't need any backstitching. The rose, I finished it and decided (with confirmation from stitching friends) that it definitely need backstitching added to it. I've put the links to both of them from my Etsy store because you will be able to see pics of the finished product and the digital pic I created it from.
Anyone have any thoughts on this one that you'd like to share??? I would love to hear them.

GOOD NEWS - I didn't want to leave a post without some good news in it!
I'm currently working on the white tulip cross stitch that was the winner of the "Pick my Next Pattern" post. I should have a picture of it posted this weekend as a "work in progress". I want to wait until you can see at least 1 full tulip to get an idea of the colors, etc.

Also - I bought from fellow Etsyan dogdazzle a new collar for Lobo, my black lab. I believe she will be shipping it today and I can't wait to get it. He's becoming quite the old guy and I think a bright new collar will perk him up. He's had the same one for the 9 years we've had him. If you recognize the name of her shop it is because she was the won gave me the Premio Meme award in a previous post.

I think I've rambled enough for this morning. Thanks for listening to my gripes (for those of you that made it all the way through)! It's time to get a shower and head off to "Paying" job.

Hope everyone has a HAPPY TUESDAY!!